Now that combat is implemented into TaE, I'm going to run through the rules behind it and what it looks like both in TP and on the physical board.

First off, there are two different types of combat in TaE: Internal and External.

Internal combat is when there are two or more leaders of the same type in a single region, as shown below:

Physical Board

TP: Normal View

TP: Resource View

External combat is when there are two or more regions which have just been connected and contain leaders of the same type, as shown below:

Physical Board. The different regions are highlighted in red and green.

TP: Normal View

TP: Resource View

Once combat is initiated, each side's initial strength is calculated. For internal combat the initial strength is the number of scientist colonies bordering your leader. For external combat the initial strength is the number of colonies of the same type as your leader in your region. For the internal example above, the "pot" has an initial strength of 1 and the "bow" has an initial strength of 2 (the red tiles are represent the scientist colonies). In the external example above, the "pot" has an initial strength of 1 (one green tile) and the "bow" has an initial strength of 0.

During the next turn (the combat turn) each player involved in the combat my "reinforce" their leaders. To do this they select an appropriate colonist ship (scientist for internal, the same type as the leader for external) and select "Reinforce" as shown below:

For each reinforcement added, the strength of that side increases by one. After the turn is over, the side with the highest strength is declared the winner.

For internal combat, the losing leader is removed from the board and the winner is awarded one technology point. If in the example above, no reinforcements were added, then the "bow" would win and the board would look like this after combat:

Physical Board

TP: Normal View

TP:Resource View

For external combat, the losing leader is removed, and all of the colonies of the same type as the losing leader in the losing leader's region are removed. In the example above, let's say the "bow" adds two reinforcements and the "pot" adds no reinforcements. This makes the final strength 2 to 1 with the "bow" winning. The "pot" leader is removed as well as the green tile in his region. The "bow" player receives 2 points of the same type as the leader (green). The board looks like this after combat:

Physical Board. After removing the losers, the area is split into two regions, outlined in black.

TP: Normal View

TP: Resource View

That's all there is to combat in TaE. After the combat turn is complete, if there are still two or more leaders of the same type in one region, another combat turn will occur. Otherwise, the game resumes with normal turns.